With mountain bikes already sporting hefty price tags, the cost of adding an electric motor might be enough to send the value-conscious rider's head spinning. Fear not! We created the table below to help you sort through which bike has the best performance to price ratio. Bikes that fall lower and further to the right, such as the Top Pick winning Commencal Meta Power Race 650B+ and the Haibike XDURO AllMtn 8.0 represent a relatively great value.
It's what's inside your motor that sets it apart from the rest. Quality parts and assembly We've written here before about how to choose a motor, the different types of motors, the performance differences between motors, etc. But today I want to show you what makes our motors different from other hub motors. Today, harry is replacing the axle on a customer's direct-drive motor. The bike was crashed and the...
There are many places in the U.S. where you can legally and responsibly ride e-MTB's, and take it from us, they are a heck of a lot of fun. Check with local land management agencies to find out where you are allowed to use an electric mountain bike before taking to the trails. One thing we do know, e-MTB's can be used on any trails that are legal for motorized use, so we took advantage of the wealth of OHV trails in the greater Lake Tahoe area for our testing purposes and had more fun doing it than any of us expected.
Functioning as their premier product, the HPC Revolution took over two years and five prototypes to get right. What’s left is a hand-welded electric mountain bike made right here in the United States featuring a 6061-T6 aluminum frame that weighs only 13 pounds and power levels upwards of 6,000W making it capable to reach speeds of 60 mph. You’ll also find its 203mm travel RockShox Boxxer World Cup Fork come in handy while off-roading as well as its Magura MT7 quad piston performance brakes when traveling at close to highway speeds.

Mountain bikes have come a long way since the 80s. Rock Shox showed up and eventually everyone had a hardtail bike. Then came dual-suspension bikes for all sorts of riding styles. My choice was a cross-country bike so I could climb fast and descend fast without the need for big air. Brakes have gone from simple calipers, to grippy Shimano V-Brakes, to bomber hydraulic disk brakes. While all this was going on street-focused eBikes were evolving too. It should be no shock that the technologies would merge to create eMTBs. A lot of people who were part of the mountain biking revolution in the 80s are getting older and eBikes allow them to continue the sport they love later in life. Whether it’s riders dealing with health issues or injuries, or simply just getting older, the emergence of eMTBs makes total sense.

Mountain electric bikes can even be used for commuting to work or going to the grocery store. When choosing a mountain eBike, make sure that you pick one that has at least 500 to 750 watts of power. Having a powerful motor to assist you on the trail will keep your legs from being sore at the end of the day. This will ensure that you get the most out of your bike and be able to drive across rocks and logs with ease.
I have been mountain biking since the late 1980s, when all I could afford was an entry-level Bridgestone MB-5 on my strapped college budget. Over the years, I’ve explored up and down the mountains of Washington and Oregon in search of the best singletrack. The bikes changed but our passion ebbed not. When I co-founded Trails.com in the late 1990s, mountain biking was still one of my top outdoor pursuits. Our employees were outdoors nuts as well and biking was simply a part of life.
The final appearance of both the FullSeven and the Yamaha PW-X on the countdown. This top notch 27.5″ wheeled shred sled is another perfect fire road rider for the intermediate rider looking to step their game up. One thing I didn’t mention before but I wanted to let you all know is that I think the FullSeven geometry this year allows the bikes to be more accessible to riders of all sizes. Traditionally, most companies offer one or two options for female riders. Haibike does offer the FullLife models, but the FullSeven series by and large offers better components and a very similar geometry. I think that’s great.
When all was said and done, the Commencal Meta Power Race 650B+ proved to have everyone's favorite e-bike controls. Commencal uses the Shimano Steps E8000 motor and system which features ergonomic thumb shifters, a small but easy to read digital display and a secure and straightforward charging connection. The ergonomic shifter of the Shimano system is better than the electronic buttons found on both the Specialized, HaiBike and Trek. The Commencal's best-in-the-test digital display also proved to be a favorite for its small size and out of the way mounting location, easy to read at-a-glance information, and color-coded support settings information. The HaiBike's Yamaha PW-X motor and system also featured a digital display, but testers thought it was a little too big, displayed too much information, was more challenging to read, and generally felt a little more clunky and less refined than the Shimano system. That Trek Powerfly's Bosch Purion shifter and display unit was easy to read and had a bright screen, but was in a less visible location on the left side of the handlebar. Our Editor's Choice Award winner, the Specialized Turbo Levo FSR Comp 6Fattie scored the lowest in this rating due to the lack of a handlebar mounted display and a less user-friendly charging connection.
Torque sensors and power controls were developed in the late 1990s. For example, Takada Yutky of Japan filed a patent in 1997 for such a device. In 1992 Vector Services Limited offered and sold an e-bike dubbed Zike.[9] The bicycle included NiCd batteries that were built into a frame member and included an 850 g permanent-magnet motor. Despite the Zike, in 1992 hardly any commercial e-bikes were available.